Delivering Mobile Process Efficiency Is Not About Mobile Phones, It’s About Business Apps

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Aaron Ellazar

63 percent of businesses deploy mobile devices to let their employees work away from their desk. But are they taking the strategy far enough?

The chained-to-a-desk cubical culture so prominent in decades past is no longer an issue for the connected, mobile workforce. The next phase in advancing this mobile efficiency is to ensure that paper processes left at the office aren’t sitting, creating bottlenecks, and can keep moving while employees are on the move. Mobile workers need processes, workflows and forms to allow them to manage their “desks,” and all the paper on it, from wherever they are.

“Work is no longer a place you go to. Rather, the workplace is defined by the tools you use, wherever you are,” Matt Kaplan, Vice President of Products at LogMeIn, said.

According to Workflow magazine, 88 percent of C-level executives surveyed by The Economist say mobile technology positively affects collaboration, and 86 percent say that mobile technology positively affects productivity. The combination of a mobile phone and laptop, for instance, creates an efficient virtual office, regardless of the physical location. These mobile solutions can bolster bottom lines by accelerating the flow of data to the right people and speeding up decision-making and deadlines. To benefit from this new efficiency, the role of every department leader is to ensure that all processes and workflows can be handled in this new on-the-go environment. Providing approvals, signatures, reviews, and more, all need to have the ability to be managed from anywhere.

Kinross Gold Corporation, a global mining company headquartered in Canada, demonstrates an excellent example of the benefits of streamlining business processes that move with their employees. They saved thousands of dollars by automating their capital request process. And, employees also profited from that major change in terms of the improved mobile abilities – and the flexibility that provided.

“Users love the ability to complete their tasks on the go, from any mobile device,” said Fabio Casti from Caprivi Solutions, a K2 partner who helped the organization with solution development. “This is a key feature for a company that travels extensively.”

The increased connectivity and flexibility keeps both organizations and individuals happy, improving overall efficiency and agility. So, why haven’t all companies embraced mobile application technology? The biggest roadblocks are typically high costs and long timelines. It could be argued, however, that going out of business is a much bigger roadblock.

To learn more about why mobile applications are a necessity, and how you can roll out responsive, reusable mobile applications quickly, check out the white paper: “It's a bring-your-own-app, mobile world”